


Once (and Many Times) Upon a Midnight Clear

by bratfarrar



Category: Christian Bible (New Testament), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-28
Updated: 2014-01-08
Packaged: 2017-12-13 07:06:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/821436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bratfarrar/pseuds/bratfarrar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Doctor and a birth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Once Upon a Midnight Clear

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Trishkafibble](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trishkafibble/gifts).



He didn’t go to see the angels, this time. Too many of him there as is, and besides, his ninth self had gone just to prove to himself that some things remained the same; his tenth self had gone to prove that _he_ remained the same, although he hadn’t thought to ask “the same as what?” This self skipped all that because he’s remembering now the power of stories, especially those that might be true, and the angels weren’t the story. _This_ is, the exhausted new mother, the baby whimpering unhappily, the smell of straw and manure and sweat, the father who both is and isn’t.  
  
This story, which managed to happen unchanged, even when all the stars had gone out and the universe was shredding itself to nothing. (He hadn't stayed long, that time, just enough to see _yes_ , angels, and _yes_ , baby, and maybe it had been the TARDIS keeping Earth alive and maybe it had been something else, but he won't speculate because this event has never made any sense, not matter how many times he comes back to it.)  
  
He doesn't go in, not this time. Maybe next time. There's another side to the stable, and if he tried, maybe he'd be able to feel his future self there. If he looked, maybe he'd see himself falling in behind the bewildered shepherds just beginning to straggle up the road. Maybe. Right now, though, he should probably go see whether Amy and Rory need rescuing from their honeymoon yet. That's his story, and he knows it's real, true, even the parts he wishes weren't.


	2. Yet to Come the Distant Close

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A season 6 coda.

The Doctor has no chance, in that strange, frozen world of ruined time, to look for Bethlehem and babe, angels ( _real_ angels) frightening shepherds. Scarcely manages to even think of doing so, what with the smashing of all existence. Just as well, perhaps—too many distractions and slights-of-hand as is.

But once again he wonders, when he’s safely “dead”, wonders just a little about the tenacity of was and is and is to come, a narrative not even he fully knows. Wonders what would have happened if Amy and River hadn’t remembered, won through. (Wonders if there’s a reason they did.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Evermore and evermore!](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corde_natus#Text_and_translations)


	3. Good morrow, masters all

He hesitates with one hand on the latch, the other caressing the stable door itself, which has been worn smooth and silver by sun and weather. At the back of the building, he knows, his past self waits, still heavy with guilt. For a moment he's seized by the urge to drop the latch and walk around the stable and tell the man he once was that it's all right (or will be)-- _those_ children have finally been saved and so he can finally bear to go in to see _this_ child. He doesn't have to hate himself anymore, or hold his name as less than truth.

But he's already here, in this time, too often for safety (in a distant court with some well-dressed astronomers; many times in a sheep field; outside a stable much like any other, except that time is set here so firmly that it stands about the place like unseeable light), so instead he takes the latch and lifts it, and opens the door and looks inside.

"Hullo," he says. "I'm the Doctor." And at long, long last it is no lie.


End file.
